Wealth Inequality and Endogenous Fairness Views

The growth in wealth and income inequality in recent decades has sparked debate about the impact of inequality on economic efficiency and social stability. I present experimental evidence that makes an important contribution to this discussion by demonstrating a causal link between wealth inequality and fairness views. I show that fairness views are set endogenously as a function of one’s position in the wealth distribution. Moreover, both high- and low-wealth individuals exhibit a self-serving bias in their fairness views. These results have important implications for social cohesion as they suggest that inequality may create divergences in views between wealth classes.